Some very good advice stuartbe... just a few personal points.
1. Dont really agree with this one, sometimes it is nescesary to install a program to test it, or to use it to help someone if they are having a problem with the same program ( I do this often over /MSN ), these rograms just clutter things up so may be needed to be uninstalled after use.
2. This is a very good point, allthough in some cases the ! can mean there are no drivers installed for the hardware rather than there being a problem. In some cases like in my laptop I often dont install the modem driver because it is not needed, this will actually speed up the machine rather than slow it down or make it unstable (allbeit not noticably faster).
3. Very good advice, though if you play any online games do not enable automatic updating, it has a nasty habbit of scanning for updates during all te best games
4. Another incredibly good point, though I never enable real time scanning as this will slow down the machine more than a lot of Viruses and can case some serious problems with driver and software instalation. just A weekly scan as you mentioned is good advice.
5. very good advice, the ammount of times I have found bad pyware on my system, also neer download any plugins from GAIN or GATOR.
6. Also good although I wouldnt reccomend weekly scans, a detailed scan takes a long time to complete and excessive scanning has been shown to reduce the overall lifetime o a hard drive, I'd reccomend monthly scandisk scans.
7. All good points except like I said above, A monthly defrag will do just as much good and is less likeley to wear out your hard drive quicker than it should.
8. couldnt agree more.
9. again couldnt agree more.
good tips Stuartbe, positive rep for you as soon as I have repped more people, apparently I need to spread mysefl around a bit before I rep you again